Understanding fatal landslides at global scales: a summary of topographic, climatic, and anthropogenic perspectives

Landslides are a common global geohazard that lead to substantial loss of life and socio-economic damage. Landslides are becoming more common due to extreme weather events and the impacts of anthropogenic disturbance, and thus, they are threatening sustainable development in many vulnerable areas. Previous studies on fatal landslides have focused on inventory development; spatial and temporal distributions; the role of precipitation or seismic forcing; and human impacts. However, climatologic, topographic, and anthropogenic variables featuring fatal landslides at a global scale have been mostly neglected. Here, using the global fatal landslide database, we evaluate the characteristics of landslides induced by natural and anthropogenic factors with respect to topographic, climatic, and anthropogenic factors, drawing attention to their persistent spatial patterns. The majority of natural (69.3